Jesus said we are lights to a dark world

Hello fellow laborers and prayer partners, 11/02/07

All of you are so dear to us! Thank you for loving and serving the Lord. This week was a very busy week and last night was the longest. This man needed electric work done so we worked to 2AM, and it’s another busy day today ~ : )!

We are planning to do something new and exciting tonight. Rich is inviting everyone to their house for song and Bible study, fellowship and prayer before we take the gospel to the streets of downtown. Below is Rich’s email.

A brief on last week, we did a lot of praying last Friday evening and through ‘halloween’ because of the lawless weekend and the 31st ‘halloween’ observances. Last Friday, we had the opportunity to talk to a man whose son just died a couple of months ago and he and his family got evicted the same day. God allowed us to encourage him and pray with him for him and for his wife and that God would be drawing them closer to Himself. We also had the opportunity to talk to a homeless guy named Donald and challenge him to take God seriously, and that was cool too. We have also heard good praise reports from our fellow soul-winners from their Saturday evening experiences! Also, for those of you who didn’t receive it, Kayla sent us the encouraging update from a couple of weeks ago, and so we posted that below Rich’s note. Sorry we weren’t able to tell you all more reports of God’s handiwork this week.

We look forward to seeing what God will do this week! It is so neat to see God tearing down darkness, and breaking people free from being slaves of sin and making them children of God! Also, we have heard clues that we might see our GNN local leaders, Scott and Patte, downtown sometime soon for a special visit – that will be a blessing for all!

Your friends and fellow-laborers,
David, Barbara, Steven and Paul

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(note from Rich)
We’re planning to go out evangelizing again this Friday. Our plan is to go out the 1st and 3rd Fridays of every month.

We’ll be discussing 2 Cor. 5:11-21 at my house at 8pm, so please… 1) prayerfully read this passage; 2) jot down any thoughts the Lord gives you; and 3) come ready to share. A couple questions to ponder:

• What motivated Paul to share his faith?

• What should being an ambassador for Christ look like in your life?

• Have you ever implored (made a passionate plea) someone to be reconciled to Christ? If so, how did it go? If not, why not?

Looking forward to seeing you Friday night. If you can’t make it at 8pm, we’ll be meeting downtown at 9:30pm at the corner of Orange and Central. Whether coming or not, please pray for an outpouring of God’s Spirit upon our time together.
Rich


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(Kayla’s encouraging note)
Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders, make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversations be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. - Colossians 4: 2-6


Dear Henry family,
Please excuse my tardiness in sending out a report from Friday night. The carnival went very well.
We spent some time at Rich's house before hand meditating on Colossians 4:2-6, as Daniel led. We spoke of prayer and the power of prayer in evangelizing. (for more resource see John Piper's message on Colossians 4: 2-6 at http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByDate/1988/641_Walk_in_Wisdom_Toward_Those_Outside/ )

and how to walk in wisdom with outsiders. Then afterwards we loaded up and headed to the carnival that was only a few minutes away from the Graham's house.

Upon arriving we split in 2 groups-Daniel, Brittany G, Trameka, Jackie in one, Rich G, Becky G, Lourdes and I in the other. Our group prayed and then strolled around the carnival awhile to scope it out. Our goal was to try and strike up conversations w/o handing out tracks at first since we were on private property. We were able to strike up a couple of conversations with a few people, one lady was there and her grandma went to that church. She was catholic, as we were able to draw her out a little on the beliefs of Catholisicm and what the plan of salvation was, but for only a few minutes as she had to leave. People were very open to talking about the church. However our conversations in the beginning never quite turned to were we were able to share the entire gospel expect once with a lady becky talked with at the beginning. Walking around and talking to people gave us a feel of what we were facing. Many had come to the carnival because they were apart of the catholic church, or knew someone there, and were willing to talk about the church. We spoke to a 31 year Italian man and his wife (girlfriend?) and got o talking about how he had run the Italian sausage both with his dad since he was a little boy, but this year he was enjoying the carnival. We prayed for him and his wife afterwards, even though we didn't know his name, it was great praying for the "31 year old Italian". Even though we were at first trying to not use tracks since being at a carnival it gave great opportunities to hand out "tickets to heaven'' and quite a few people were able to get those.

Then toward the end of the night, Rich suggested that we go out with a bang and started just passing out tracks like we normally would, and if we got kicked out we would just hand them out on the sidewalk. It sounded like a plan, so we went to work. :) God used the last 10 minutes in spectacular ways. Rich was able to talk with 2 boys and their mom, (using the magically illusion tracks) and Becky, Lourdes and I talked with two boys (Matt- 13 and Jonathan), using the tickets to heaven. We had approached the boys when they were in a group and they all wanted turns trying to rip the tracks, and beat each other doing it. As we started going through the 10 commandments to two of the boys (matt and jonathan) they fell quiet and listened, but their buddies in the group walked away leaving Matt and Jonathan alone with us. They seemed very concerned that because they had broken God's commands they were in danger of hell. Becky asked Matt, " Does that concern you?" and I won't forget the look of fear on his face. She then asked him if he knew that God had done something to fix it and he knew that Jesus had come to save him. Becky asked if she could pray with him afterwards, and she prayed that Christ would come alive in his heart, and that what he knew about Christ, God would illuminate in his soul. We handed him a Gospel of John and encouraged him to read it when he got home.
It was amazing to see God at work on Friday. It seems that everytime we go out God works wonders, and every Friday I seem amazed, and sometimes and amazed that the very things we prayed for 2 hours before, God allows to happen..why am I shocked that God performs miracles and wonders after he has proven himself time and time again? He is so faithful to move on hearts of people we've never met..Hallejiuah! Even in times like Friday, which was some what discouraging at the beginning, God moved to show his power in the last 10 minutes, so that we could all stand back and marvel:) Isn't God good?


"Therefore since through God's mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. Rather we have renounced secret and shameful ways, we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourself to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God who said, " Let light shine out of darkness, " made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God's glory displayed in the face of Christ. " - 2 Corinthians 4 : 1- 6

May God's light break the veil of all who are perishing.

Grace be with you,
Kayla


As a child of God, the spirit's a fire in your bones. The Lord Jesus calls a compelling force, a mighty strength within you, yelling, pushing, fighting, as a raging animal to be let out of it's cage, a great dynamic fire of mercy to be released from the chains of the body. The yearnings of the gospel calls us to speak, to be released never stopping it's pursuit until every ear, every heart has been pierced with it's saving sword. Indeed this is the heart of our Savior, that everyone should hear the sweet music of his name. The word is indeed a consuming fire, eating away at the very depths of our souls ,if we hold it in. Opening our mouths allows a cascading of mercy and love like a rushing waterfall to befall on sinners’ ears. We must indeed open our mouths to speak, as our Savior commands or the sharpened sword within will soon become a dead weed in our lethargic hearts.